DEFINITIONS
DELAWARE FACTBOOK
(for Kent, New Castle and Sussex Counties)
INTRODUCTION
Goals of the DaimlerChrysler and UAW Community Health Initiative
DaimlerChrylser and the UAW launched a Community Health Initiative in Delaware (Kent, New
Castle and Sussex Counties) to encourage the development of a community health care
delivery system that:
•
provides high quality health services;
•
promotes disease and accident prevention;
•
expands health education;
•
improves community health status;
•
enhances the quality of life;
•
reduces costs through the efficient and appropriate cost-effective delivery of services; and
•
promotes a culture of best practices.
The Community Health Initiative process seeks to realize this vision through the development of
broad-based collaboration among consumers, purchasers, caregivers and providers. Past
Community Health Initiatives have been conducted in the following areas: Anderson, IN; Flint,
MI; Kokomo, IN; Youngstown/Warren, OH; and Kansas City, KS/MO. Sponsors of these
initiatives have included DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, the Ford Motor Company, the
International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) and the International Union, United Auto Workers
(UAW).
Purpose of the Community Assessment Factbook
The purpose of this Community Assessment Factbook is to provide analytic support to the
community seeking to fulfill the vision of an improved health care system. The community
assessment helps catalyze the Community Health Initiative by providing interested parties with
the information needed to reach consensus on an agenda for health system change.
Specifically, the community assessment supports the Community Health Initiative process by:
•
providing a common understanding of local population needs and health care resources;
•
assessing the effectiveness of current health care delivery and financing systems;
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DEFINITIONS
•
identifying specific opportunities for improving the health status and health care delivery
system of the community;
•
pinpointing areas of imbalance between needs and resources and targeting opportunities for
feasible change;
•
providing a “fact base” to facilitate community-level action planning and priority setting; and
•
establishing a reliable baseline for future community monitoring efforts.
For the purposes of this analysis, we generally define “target community” as the State of
Delaware, which includes Kent, Sussex and New Castle Counties. Interviews with community
stakeholders led to the use of the entire State of Delaware, and not merely New Castle County,
as the target community. This target community includes both the residents of Delaware and
the health care providers located within Delaware. All data in the factbook reflects the
experience of the entire community, not just that of auto industry employees.
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